


Another High-Flying Tall Tale

by Pony Girl (Jackjunkie)



Category: Alias Smith and Jones, Legend (TV 1995)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2017-11-16 06:05:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/536307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackjunkie/pseuds/Pony%20Girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Heyes and Curry join Ernest and Janos on a Legend-ary adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another High-Flying Tall Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published in the zine Wizard's Cauldron.

“Welcome to Sheridan, Colorado, gentlemen, home of the famous Nicodemus Legend.” The door to the private coach swung open to reveal the owner of the voice that had made the announcement: a gawky young man with an unruly thatch of dark hair that stuck straight up from his head.

“Be sure not to miss the Legend Memorabilia Shop or the Legend Wax Museum,” he continued. “For a small consideration, I can give you a personally guided tour of all the sites made famous in the Legend-ary adventures. Ha ha. Legend-ary, get it? You people can laugh, can’t you?”

“Right now we’re more interested in finding the home of a friend of mine, Professor Janos Bartok,” smiled the well-dressed man on the rear seat.

“Oh, the famous Professor Bartok.” The boy nodded knowingly. “He lives outside of town. I can tell you how to get there.”

The driver jumped down to join the conversation. Tearing his fascinated gaze away from the unusual hairdo, he listened closely to the directions, but his eyes kept straying back to that hair.

Noticing the direction of the blue-eyed stare, the boy rolled his eyes upward as if checking his own hairline, then cheerfully offered an explanation. “That’s from the professor’s experiments.”

“Professor Bartok experimented on your hair?” The question came from the coach’s second occupant, who was dressed in a more ordinary, not to say worn, fashion than the first. His brown eyes widened in surprise.

“Not exactly,” the boy amended. “It’s the electricity in the air from the weather experiments that does it. You should see the barber‘s dog. Then again, better not.”

“Janos always had a vast curiosity about electricity.” The professor’s well-tailored friend handed a coin to the helpful lad. “We’re obliged for your assistance.”

“Anytime, and if there’s anything more I can do, just ask for Skeeter.” Flipping the coin into the air and catching it neatly, he ambled away across the street.

“Price, how well do you know this friend of yours?” asked the driver doubtfully.

“Now, Thaddeus, I expect the boy was exaggerating. Perhaps he thought a colorful story would produce a better tip.”

The other passenger ran a hand through his glossy, chestnut hair. “Just as long as his experiments don’t affect us.”

“Joshua, I’m sure you have nothing to worry about,” said his companion.

The famous Hannibal Heyes, alias Joshua Smith, produced a dimpled grin as he looked through the open door at the famous Kid Curry, alias Thaddeus Jones. “Maybe not, but in my partner’s case, I expect it’d be an improvement.”

Curry snorted. He didn’t appear too concerned about his own dark blond curls. “Who’s this Legend the boy was talkin’ about?”

“Ah yes, Nicodemus Legend,” Price reflected. “I do seem to recall Janos mentioning in his letters that he was acquainted with the man. He writes those dime novels about his adventures. They’re quite popular. You must have heard of him.”

Heyes smothered a laugh. “I wouldn’t count on Thaddeus having an extensive knowledge of books or writers. I have read a few of them myself, though, come to think of it. Pretty lively, as I recall.”

“Oh yeah,” the Kid remembered, again declining to take offense at his friend’s remarks. “I looked over a couple of your copies of ‘em. Pretty fanciful’s more like it. Lot o’ nonsense about steam buggies and flying machines.” Shaking his head at such folly, he closed the door. Mounting to the box, he got the horses underway and headed the coach out of Sheridan, following Skeeter’s directions.

*****

“Price, my dear colleague, welcome!” Bartok had emerged from his laboratory at the visitors’ approach and now greeted his friend warmly. “Ramos, I have spoken to you of Price Fallon, who shares many of our scientific interests.” The tall professor turned to his shorter companion, who extended his own hand in welcome. “My associate, Huitzilopochtli Ramos, who has a degree in physics from Harvard.”

“Don’t worry about pronouncing the Aztec name. Just call me Ramos.” A cordial smile gleamed below a dark moustache.

Price shook his hand, but demurred, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ramos, and good to see you again, Janos, but I hardly deserve the appellation of colleague. You are the genuine scientists. I merely dabble.”

“Oh, one man’s dabbling is another man’s experimenting.” The Hungarian waved away the objection. “Many interests begin as hobbies and grow from there. And speaking of hobbies, how are the ostriches doing?”

“They’re in fine feather, thanks in large part to the good care they received from my friends here a while back.” Price turned to his companions. “This is Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones. They arrived for a visit just before I left the ranch and, since I didn’t want to put off my promised visit to you, they were kind enough to accompany me here and spell me in the driving.”

“Long as we were in Colorado, we had to stop by Price’s place to say howdy,” Curry said, “and to see how the ostriches were doin’. Smith here took a real shine to them birds when we worked there as ranch hands last year.”

“Woulda been a shame to cut our visit to Price short,” Heyes added, “and besides, we couldn’t pass up a chance to get a firsthand look at all your inventions that Price is always going on about. Never knew a man so interested in trying new things.”

“Friends of Price Fallon are always welcome here.” Janos shook their hands vigorously. “Smith and Jones, Smith and Jones... ah yes, I know who you are!”

Heyes and Curry exchanged a wary glance. “And who would that be?” asked the former, with a half laugh to cover his concern. Price only knew them as Smith and Jones. Had they given his friends any reason to think differently? Had they been recognized as wanted outlaws?

“Why, you’re the fellows who helped keep Price and his balloon from being used in that robbery in Denver! Yes, he wrote me all about it. Price, you must tell Ernest about that sometime. Ernest, it sounds just like a story out of one of your books. Ernest Pratt, gentlemen, better known to the world as Nicodemus Legend.”

The man so addressed stepped forward from the doorway where he’d been waiting while the old friends greeted each other. A tall, slender man, he had straight brown hair and a full moustache. His splendid yellow suit perfectly matched the pictures of him which were printed on all the covers of his books, marking him as the hero as well as the chronicler of Legend’s adventures.

“Ah yes, Skeeter mentioned you when we stopped in town, Mr. Legend,” Price said.

“I’m sure he did,” Pratt replied. “Pay no attention to anything you might hear. And the name is Pratt, Ernest Pratt.”

“Ernest is too modest,” Janos objected. “The stories about the heroic Legend are all quite true.”

“Even the one about Gentleman Jim Siringo?” Heyes asked curiously.

“You’ve read Legend and the Gentleman Bank Robber?” Pratt asked with a pleased smile.

“I’ve read several of your books, Mr. Pratt,” Heyes admitted. “I took a particular interest in that one since I know Siringo is a real person, an actual bank robber. I wondered how much of the rest of the story was true.”

“Oh, all of it,” Janos assured him. “Siringo was falsely accused of a murder and brought the case to the one man he could trust, Nicodemus Legend.”

“Why would you help an outlaw?” Curry inquired, folding his arms and giving the celebrated author a long, appraising look.

“He may have been an outlaw, but he was not a murderer,” Pratt explained. “He told me that he was a professional and that nobody needed to get hurt in a robbery if you knew what you were doing.”

Heyes and Curry exchanged another look.

“Interesting concept,” Heyes murmurred.

“Indeed,” Pratt agreed, “and when someone took advantage of Siringo’s notoriety to blame him for something he did not do, Legend stepped in to clear his good name and uncover the real culprit - with a great deal of help from Janos, by the way. His scientific analysis of the evidence was invaluable, if a little more... explosive than planned.”

“I still say the Bartok Smokeless Nitroglycerin Gelatin would advance the science of bank robbery with some further modification,” the professor defended his methods.

“Science of bank robbery?” Heyes asked, a gleam of interest lighting his brown eyes.

“I switched to acid the next time we opened a safe,” Janos added.

“It was quieter,” Pratt admitted.

The gleam grew. “Tell me about this acid,” Heyes urged Bartok. “Strictly as a matter of scientific curiosity.”

“I would be happy to. Please, everyone, come in and let me show you around my laboratory.”

“That’s what we came to see,” Price agreed genially.

“So are you saying all the things in your books really happened?” Curry asked Pratt as they followed the others inside. 

“Not at all. Much of it started out as fiction. However, you’ve heard the saying, ‘Life imitates art’?” He observed Curry’s blank look. “Perhaps not. At any rate, Legend seems to have taken on a life of his own, and now Janos and Ramos and I find no lack of adventures about which I can write.”

“I didn’t think it was all true,” Curry revealed. “Some of those mechanical marvels you use just can’t be real. I mean, a horseless buggy and a gun that shoots lightning b-...” The Kid’s voice trailed away and he stopped short as he observed what indeed appeared to be a bolt of lightning shoot from Ramos’ hand.

As Heyes whistled his amazement, Pratt extended his arm in a grand gesture. “Mr. Jones, the Bartok Bipolar High Intensity Electro-Fulminator. Your lightning gun.”

“I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. In fact, I’m still not sure I believe it,” Curry avowed, rubbing the orbs in question.

“A simple discharge of electricity,” Bartok delightedly instructed his awestruck audience. “We are discovering it has many practical applications.”

Intrigued, Price looked up from his examination of the weapon Ramos had handed him. “Janos, what about the anti-weapon invention of some type that you wrote me about?”

“Ah yes, the Bartok Tight Focus Electromagnetic Disarmer.” Lifting a leather harness from a table, the professor passed it around for them all to get a closer look. “It can disarm the quickest draw. Why, I’ll wager even Kid Curry could not outdraw it.”

“You don’t say,” Kid Curry skeptically responded. “I’d like to see a demonstration of that.”

“Need more convincing, do you?” Pratt accepted the harness from Ramos.

“Certainly, but since we do not have that notable fast gun here, we shall have to make do with one of us. How about you, Mr. Jones, since you are so eager?” Janos proposed.

“He may not be Kid Curry, but I reckon he can stand in and hold out his gun for you to show us how your gadget works,” Heyes drawled.

Curry laughed shortly at his partner’s humor and stood where Janos indicated, facing Pratt who was strapping on the disarmer. The writer flipped a switch to activate the electric charge.

The Kid drew his revolver with what had often been referred to as lightning speed, only to feel the weapon yanked from his hand the instant it cleared the holster by a truer form of lightning. He stared astonished from his empty palm to his six-gun now snugly fastened to the horseshoe-shaped metal wielded by Ernest Pratt.

“A very creditable draw, Mr. Jones, but you see how it’s no match for my disarmer,” exclaimed Janos happily.

“Hm, very impressive, but it don’t seem too practical to go around strapped into that thing all the time,” the Kid observed.

“Nose out of joint, Thaddeus?” Heyes wondered.

“No, he’s right,” Ernest agreed, switching off the electric current and returning the revolver to its bemused owner. “It’s not an everyday fashion. I only wear it on special occasions.”

The laboratory tour was cut short when Fallon noted that it was getting late and they needed to return to town to settle into the hotel. They would save the remainder of the professor’s inventions for another day.

Ernest decided to ride back with them. Bidding good night to Janos and Ramos, the others drove back to Sheridan.

Tired from the trip and the excitement, Fallon turned in early, but Heyes and Curry accepted Pratt’s invitation for a drink at the Buffalo Head Saloon.

They ordered whiskey and were startled when Mr. Pratt’s usual turned out to be a cup of tea.

“Leave the pot, Grady, there’s a good fellow.” Ernest tasted the liquid, then shot back the rest of the cup in one swallow. Smacking his lips with satisfaction, he set the china cup back on the table and reached for the teapot to pour another.

“Astounding how much tea looks and smells like whiskey nowadays,” the Kid observed.

“Yes, isn’t it?” Pratt asked with an innocent smile. “Nicodemus Legend doesn’t drink, you see.” He sighed deeply. “Ah, my friends, you’ve no idea what a curse it is to live with a nom de plume, an alias if you will.”

“Oh, I think we have,” Heyes responded faintly. “At least we can imagine what it’s like.”

“To be oppressed with a dual identity, to have to live up to a reputation, to have everyone thinking you’re someone you’re not -- it isn’t easy,” Ernest bemoaned his fate.

“Here’s to life as an open book.”

They all raised their glasses - and teacup - to join in Heyes’ toast.

*****

The next day Bartok and Ramos came into Sheridan to meet the visitors. Walking out of the hotel, they encountered the mayor, Chamberlain Brown.

“Mayor Brown? Hm, you wouldn’t by any chance be acquainted with a man called Preacher, would you?” asked Heyes, wide-eyed at the introduction.

“No, I don’t believe I’ve met anyone by that name, though I’ve met a few preachers in my time, being in a related line of work, you might say,” the mayor replied.

“Mayor Brown is our town’s undertaker, as well as an excellent taxidermist,” Bartok enthused in answer to their puzzled looks.

“Between his business and his politics, he’s got those two sure things, death and taxes, pretty well covered, eh, your honor?” quipped Pratt.

“Ah.” Heyes continued to look searchingly at Brown.

“Why do you ask about this Preacher, Mr. Smith?” the mayor prompted curiously.

“He’s a friend of ours and I detected a bit of a resemblance. Thought you might be kin.”

“Don’t recollect any of the family went into preaching. Had an aunt who ran off with an itinerant Bible salesman, but that’s as close as we’ve come to spreading the good word.”

“I don’t guess any of Preacher’s family went into mayoring either,” surmised the Kid.

When the mayor had gone on his way, Janos swept the group out to the street and proudly showed them the strange-looking vehicle parked there. “Gentlemen, this is the Bartok Steam-Powered Town and Country Quadrovelocipede.”

“You might be more familiar with it by the term ‘land rover’ if you’ve read Blood on the Texas Sand,” Ernest put in.

“There’s your horseless buggy, Thaddeus!” Fallon exclaimed in delight. “Janos, you must show me how to operate it.”

“Gladly, my friend. Ramos!”

They powered it up and everyone had a turn at a ride. Fallon was greatly intrigued with learning how to run it himself, so Bartok and Ramos agreed to take him for a long drive to practice.

While they were so occupied, Heyes and Curry drove the coach out to the compound with Pratt to see more of the professor’s inventions.

Upon entering the laboratory, they saw immediately that it had been disturbed. Tables were overturned and equipment was in disarray. A hasty look around discovered no one there.

“Janos would never leave the place like this,” Ernest averred. “The man is annoyingly neat.”

“Can you tell if anything’s missin’?” asked Curry.

A quick search provided the answer.

“I don’t see the new Bartok Sonar Collector and Amplifier,” Ernest announced.

“What does that do?” inquired Heyes.

“If I understand Janos correctly, it collects sound waves and makes them louder and stronger. He developed it from the Bartok Constant Frequency Receiver. We used that during a little adventure saving President Grant from some kidnappers, while trying to listen in on their plotting. It picked up their conversation as planned and made it loud enough for us to hear from a distance, but it also shattered some windows and brought down the side of a building. And that was an accident! I shudder to think of the destruction this new invention could cause now that it’s designed for precisely that purpose.”

“This had to happen after the professor and Ramos left for town this morning,” the Kid determined, ”so whoever did it can’t have much of a head start. We have a chance if we go after them right away.”

“We?” Heyes echoed, taken aback.

“We need to get word to Janos,” Pratt said.

“We can leave him a message, but we really should get started,” Curry urged. “Since we didn’t meet them on the road from town, I’d say down the road in the opposite direction’s a good place for us to start.”

“Uh, Thaddeus, shouldn’t we let the law handle this? I’m sure I spotted a sheriff’s office in Sheridan,” Heyes intervened.

“And a very good sheriff he is, too, though we’ve had our differences,” said Pratt. “I bear him no ill will for arresting me. It was all a misunderstanding. By the time we went back to town to tell him, however, it might be too late. Thaddeus is right. We need to start after the thieves at once.”

“We should saddle up some horses. Be faster than that coach of Price’s,” Curry suggested.

“Even better, we’ll take the other land rover,” Pratt decreed. “We’ll make much better speed. We could manage with three, although it’s really designed to transport two. Joshua, would you be so good as to stay here to let Janos know what has happened? You can follow with the others when they return.” Ernest hurried away to get the quadrovelocipede.

“Kid, you gotta curb this talent you have for landing us smack in the middle of other folks’ troubles,” Heyes said when he was finally able to get a word in edgewise. “Ain’t we got enough of our own?”

“We gotta help Price’s friends, Heyes,” Curry reasoned in the face of his partner’s doubtful expression.

Heyes mulled it over. “I did hear the professor mention to Price something about knowing the governor of Colorado. If we do help them out, maybe they can put in a good word about us for him to pass along to Wyoming, governor to governor. Stands to reason the two neighboring governors should know each other.”

“There you go. This could be good for our amnesty. Just try not to let Price and his friends get themselves killed or anything.”

“Agreed. Be careful.” He gave his partner a significant look.

“I’m always careful,” Curry assured him. 

“At least I don’t have to ride in that,” Heyes remarked as Pratt drove up in the steam-powered contraption. “It was a novelty on a town street, but how is it on a long trip?”

“Oh, completely trustworthy,” Pratt said, tossing the Kid a leather helmet and a pair of goggles. “Here, put these on.”

Curry eyed the articles suspiciously.

“Don’t worry; it’s just a precaution,” Pratt said. “Keeps the wind out of your eyes.”

“Worrying’s a habit of his. He enjoys it,” Heyes interjected with a grin.

Curry just grunted. He pulled off his hat and pulled on the strange headgear. He stepped in and barely had time to sit before Ernest accelerated and they were off.

*****

“Ramos! The balloon!” Janos ordered as soon as he heard of the catastrophe.

“But...the horses are all hitched up to the coach. Wouldn’t it be better to take that?” Heyes asked uneasily.

“No, we’ll make up the time much faster by air. We may very likely catch up with Ernest before he catches up with the thief, or thieves.”

“Joshua has had a somewhat unpleasant experience with balloons,” Price noted sympathetically.

“It was just the one time,” Heyes explained, “and I’d like to keep it that way. Flying don’t agree with my stomach. Maybe I’ll just follow in the coach. Or on horseback.”

“Nonsense!” Janos declared stoutly. “That’s a very common reaction to the height the first time up, but one soon gets used to it. You’ll be fine this time, you’ll see. You don’t want to lag behind.”

“I don’t? I mean, no, I don’t.”

They approached the balloon, which Ramos now had ready to launch.

“Joshua, just think of it as a small step for you, but a big step for science,” Price encouraged him.

“Never let it be said that Joshua Smith stood in the way of science.” Taking a deep breath, Heyes placed his boot onto the balloon’s platform and took that small yet giant step. “Let’s go.”

*****

Floating high above the earth gave the activity below them an unreal quality, as they watched the two men on horseback aim the Bartok Sonar Collector and Amplifier at the hillside. The effect became all too real when a few rocks loosened and tumbled downward. The men appeared to make an adjustment to the invention.

“We must stop them immediately, or they’ll drop a rockslide on Ernest and Mr. Jones!” Janos cried.

“Look, they’re not that far behind,” protested Heyes. “Ernest and Thaddeus might reach those men before they do any real damage.”

“No, there isn’t time. Observe,” Janos insisted.

The men aimed the amplifier a second time and a larger collection of rocks and dirt spattered on the ground below. The men climbed down from their horses and adjusted the equipment yet again.

“Janos is right. We’re running out of time, but what can we do from up here?” Price inquired.

“Ramos! The Legend wings,” instructed the professor. He looked around. “Fit them to Mr. Smith.”

Heyes looked in horror at the object Ramos carried over to him. “Hey, just because you were right about flying in the balloon not being so bad this time, don’t mean I’m ready for that kind of flying,” he stated staunchly. It looked like it was time to put that silver tongue of his to good effect and talk Bartok out of this fool idea. “Why me?”

“You are the closest match to Ernest’s height and build,” the professor elaborated. “They were designed to be worn by him and too much deviation from his measurements may interfere with the aerodynamics. Price and I are too tall, Ramos too short, which leaves you, Mr. Smith, as our only option.”

“Joshua, just think of...” began Fallon.

“Yeah, yeah, science. I know,” Heyes grumbled.

“Actually, I was going to say think of Thaddeus and Mr. Pratt,” corrected Price.

“Oh.” Heyes looked down at the disturbing sight of his partner riding into an ambush. Without further objection, he held out his arms for Ramos to slip the wings over his shoulders. “How do I work these things?”

“The wings do all the work,” Ramos told him. “You just glide along for the ride.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Heyes said as he stepped to the edge of the balloon’s platform.

“Oh, it is,” Janos assured him. “Ernest always says that the flying is nothing.”

“That’s good,” said Heyes.

“It’s the landing part that gives him all the trouble,” Janos added just as Heyes leaped away from the balloon’s tenuous support.

“What?” he called in alarm, but it was too late. He was airborne.

*****

As they sped along, Ernest explained, as best he understood it from Bartok, the principle of how the land rover was powered. Although Pratt had conceived that idea and many others for his books, it had taken Bartok’s scientific knowledge to turn them into reality.

The Kid thought it sounded very similar to a steam engine on a train, without the tracks, which was just what Pratt had intended when he first described the vehicle. Curry wasn’t sure it would ever replace the horse, though. It didn’t bounce any worse than a stagecoach, but you couldn’t rely on a machine the way you could on a good, sturdy horse.

It was fast, though. In fact, Curry suddenly pointed ahead and gave a shout of triumph. “We’re gainin’ on ‘em! What’s your plan when we reach ‘em?”

“I don’t actually have a plan,” Pratt replied offhandedly.

“What? In your books, Legend always has a plan.”

“A device of the genre,” Pratt waved a hand in dismissal. “Never mind. I believe he’ll reach them first anyway.” He pointed up.

Following the direction of the pointing finger, Curry looked towards the sky and spotted the bright balloon inscribed with the name of Legend. Then he spied another object nearby, soaring through the air like a very large bird of prey. “What is that?” he asked, mystified.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Pratt replied, peering back and forth between the balloon and the soaring object, “it’s your friend, Mr. Smith.”

“Joshua?!” The Kid looked harder. “It can’t be,” he denied. “Joshua don’t even cotton to flying in a balloon, never mind in that, that, whatever that is.”

“That, my dear fellow, is, er, are the famous Legend wings, until this moment worn solely by Nicodemus Legend, as personified by Ernest Pratt of course.” Pratt sounded a bit miffed.

“Well, you may be used to gettin’ around like that, but Joshua’s not.” Curry looked grimly at Pratt. “If this machine can go any faster, I’d say now’s the time to step on it.”

Ernest complied and they raced towards the impending confrontation.

*****

Heyes let out a yell and teetered a moment in the air, kicking frantically at nothing. It was an alarming sensation to have all support vanish from beneath him. In a moment, however, he felt the wings lift and glide, as they were supported on a light cushion of the invisible air itself. He was somehow able to draw from that a sense of security in these new and very insecure circumstances. Following Ramos’ quickly-given instructions, he aimed himself and began to descend towards the thieves. This flying thing wasn’t so bad after all.

He had second thoughts as he contemplated landing. Pratt had undoubtedly hit on the trouble spot there. Well, he appeared to have two options: to crash on the hard-packed dirt and rocks or to crash on the men themselves. The great planner Hannibal Heyes had no difficulty in formulating one now. He decided to go with the softer landing site.

The two men went down in a tangle of limbs, shouting at the monstrous thing that had swooped down on them from the skies. The Sonar Amplifier rolled from their hands down the path.

Slipping his arms from the wings, Heyes managed to gain his feet first, owing to the advantage of being at the top of the heap. Hearing wheels crunch to a stop, he looked up to see his partner and Pratt climbing out of the land rover.

The two men still on the ground took that opportunity to go for their guns. A bullet pinged into one weapon and the man snatched his hand away as if burned. The other man’s gun flew from his grasp straight into the air.

Heyes looked back at his friends to see Kid Curry calmly holstering the revolver which had fired the single bullet, while a beaming Pratt held his Electromagnetic Disarmer, to which the flying gun was firmly attached.

“We appear to have a tie,” Pratt declared. “You have quite a fast draw yourself there, Jones.”

“Well, your little gadget wasn’t pointed at my gun,” the Kid offered deprecatingly.

“Thanks,” Heyes grinned, picking up his fallen hat and dusting it off. When it once again looked more black than gray, he smoothed back his hair and set the hat comfortably on his head.

“And you told me to be careful?” Curry looked at his friend in disbelief. “What were you thinking, flying around in them things? Thought flying made you sick, anyhow.”

“Oh, it wasn’t so bad the second time around. And the wings were rather... exhilarating. Extraordinary feeling, Pratt.”

“Mm, yes. You’re not going to tell Janos you liked them, are you? He’ll make me use them twice as often and there aren’t always a couple of scoundrels handy to cushion the landing.”

While they were talking, the balloon settled to the ground and the professor and Price jumped from the platform. Ramos stayed aboard to tend the balloon.

“My Sonar Collector and Amplifier!” Bartok cried as he lifted it tenderly from the ground and looked it over carefully. “It doesn’t appear damaged. You see, Price, this is how...”

The two scientists bent over the equipment, examining and discussing.

Apparently thinking they were being overlooked, the two robbers began to slowly crawl away.

“Not so fast, boys,” Heyes drawled.

They froze and turned sullen eyes back towards the motley group.

“Indeed not,” Janos agreed, walking up to look them over. “What did you mean by stealing this apparatus? What use is it to you?”

“Answer the man,” Curry said warningly when they appeared to hesitate. His hand hovered threateningly near his six-gun.

“We saw you out practicin’ with it one day,” one of them confessed. “Just thought it might come in handy takin’ out the side of a bank or stoppin’ a posse on our trail with a landslide.”

“You got a big mouth, Ed,” the other robber informed him.

“To think of one of my inventions being used for crime instead of for good,” Janos said sadly. “It almost makes me sorry to have invented it at all.”

Price consoled his friend. “You’ll always have someone who can twist a good thing round to a bad end. That doesn’t mean you should stop your research or you’ll throw out the good as well.”

“Yes, and good will triumph over evildoers,” Pratt maintained, “with a little help from Nicodemus Legend. And friends.” He grinned brightly at them all.

“You’re right, Ernest. Let’s get these hoodlums back to Sheridan to turn over to the sheriff.”

They rounded up the unsuccessful thieves and headed back to town.

*****

“It was quite an eventful visit, Janos. I can’t promise you as much excitement if you come to my ranch, but I still hope you’ll return the visit soon. I’m anxious to show you some of the things I’m working on.” Price shook hands with his friend in farewell.

“As am I anxious to see them, my friend,” Bartok replied. “As busy as we are, Ramos and Ernest and I, we are never too busy to add to our scientific knowledge.”

“You won’t forget to mention our help to the Colorado governor?” Heyes exhorted Pratt. “As we told you, we’re trying to get a favor from the Wyoming governor, and this could be just the thing to persuade him.”

“I’ll remember. You have Nicodemus Legend’s word,” Ernest promised, adding with a twinkle, “What’s more, you have Ernest Pratt’s word.”

“That’s good enough for us,” said the Kid, grasping his hand in a firm shake.

With all their good-bye’s said, Curry and Fallon entered the stagecoach while Heyes climbed up to the driver’s seat. They waved cheerily as they rolled out of sight.

“Now there go true, upstanding men of honor,” Janos observed. “Men who believe in the law and do the right thing. You must put them in a book, Ernest.”

“Perhaps I will. Smith and Jones... Hm, I’ll have to change those names, though. They sound more like outlaws than heroes.”

THE END


End file.
